In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,207, there is disclosed a swimmer's glove in which the joints joining the portions of the fingers, joining the fingers to the hand portion of the glove, and joining the hand portion of the glove to the wrist portion, are constructed so that they permit bending of the joints in the closing direction of the hand, but substantially prevent bending in the opposite direction, thereby reinforcing the hand and fingers of the swimmer against bending in the opening direction when force is exerted on the glove from the side toward the closing direction of the hand, i.e. the palm of the hand of the wearer, as the swimmer moves the glove through the water while swimming.
It has now been found that the glove as disclosed in that patent can be greatly improved by changing the structure of the lower portion of the various joints to allow for the fact that when a swimmer has closed his hand and fingers, the distances between the portions of the joints along the palm side of the hand and fingers has become less, because of the bulk of the bones and the fleshy part of the hand and fingers, than the distances between the joints along the back portion of the hand and fingers, which remain the same.
It has been determined that when the swimming glove of the present invention is completely closed, i.e. curled in the direction of the closing of the palm of the hand of the swimmer wearing the glove, the distance between the joints of the fingers and the joint between the fingers and the hand portion along the palm portion of the glove will be approximately one-half the corresponding distance between the joints along the back portion of the glove.